The practicalities of transferring data between project collaboration systems used by the construction industry

As part of an industry-lead initiative, standards have been developed to enable bulk
exchange of project data between project collaboration systems used by the
construction industry. Through the work of developing exchange standards to the
practical implementation of data transfer, this paper examines the issues that need to
be addressed by both solution providers and their clients when considering moving a
project’s data between two different instances of collaborative software. It highlights
the practical difficulties of keeping the consistency of the data during the transfer
process and gives solutions that can help to overcome these and other problems. The
paper draws on experience gained through the development of vendor-neutral
standards and real-life project migrations to put forward procedures which should be
adopted by vendors, and gives insight into the underlying process for clients. The
paper will form a vital framework for clients to determine if the benefits of moving
projects between suppliers outweigh the difficulties associated with the move, and to
help vendors put processes in place to best facilitate the transfer.